Shares of Colorado-based Ascent Solar (NASDAQ: ASTI) rose 9 percent Friday, the day of the company's annual general meeting.

And while shares of Ascent kept climbing in after-hours trading after market close, they ended relatively flat today, closing at $8.02—up substantially from a low earlier this year of $2.45.

At Friday's meeting, shareholders cleared the way for strategic partner Norsk Hydro (NYSE: NHY) to increase its equity stake in Ascent from its current 23 percent to up to 35 percent.

Shareholders voted to allow Hydro to immediately purchase up to 23% of Ascent Solar’s outstanding Class A and Class B public warrants.

Last month, Ascent Solar announced that it would redeem its outstanding Class A public warrants beginning June 25, 2007.

The Hydro relationship is significant. The company is actually the third-largest integrated aluminum supplier in the world, and the second largest maker of aluminum siding in the world, marketing products under the brand names DOMAL, TECHNAL and WICONA.

Hydro and Ascent Solar had already initiated the joint development of a building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) product line, Ascent Solar President and CEO Matthew Foster acknowledged at the AGM.

Given Ascent's strong focus on BIPV applications for its forthcoming thin film solar material, the partnership seems natural: Ascent gets large volume commitments, and Hydro gets differentiated products to sell to builders.

"Being able to integrate into building materials is key. It makes solar so much cheaper to install. The high costs of labor are one of the key factors why solar isn't yet affordable for the mass market," said Ascent spokesperson Kelly Brandner to Cleantech.com.

"Companies [like Hydro] who make roofing and siding will be able to integrate this right into the product. Installers won't have to link individual modules like they do today. It's a breakthrough in making solar more widely used and accessible," she said.

"It's the next wave beyond what the First Solars of the world are doing today. And we're only months away from making it available."

First Solar is a high profile thin film solar maker. Since going public in November last year, its stock has risen almost four-fold, trading today at $78.28 a share on an IPO of $20 a share.

Ascent aims to begin producing its thin film material in volume in "early 2008," according to Brandner, from its plant in Littleton, Colorado. The company will look into building a larger facility at a later time, she said.

Also at the annual meeting, shareholders re-elected Richard Swanson (not to be confused with Richard Swanson, president and CTO of solar competitor SunPower), Stanley Gallery, and Dr. T.W. Fraser Russell to Ascent's board.

Norsk Hydro is headquartered in Oslo, Norway.